Saturday

I may have mentioned it here before, but I very much like the guardian's concept of getting specialist movie reviews. For example, last year I remember seeing a review of Snakes on a Plane by an ophiologist, and today (Monday) there is a review of The Illusionist by the magician Paul Daniels (I haven't the regularity to know when and how often they actually repeat this column). They offer incredibly interesting insights. For example, Paul Daniels tells how many of the tricks used in the film are accurate to the period (only one I think isn't). He recommends, however, that filmmakers pay more attention to the advice of magicians. At one point it is obvious CGI is used, when in fact a magician could have done the trick for them. This is a very interesting point - couldn't we use magicians a lot more in films? I'm imagining there are a lot of instances when the way a magician thinks about things, how to decieve an audience, could come in very useful. I'm guessing Bergman already had these thoughts in his film The Face.